The Uzumaki Scrolls - Fox of Konoha
by MonkeyMoa
Summary: When the fabled clan that descended from the Nine-Tailed Fox falls, the Kyuubi soon goes into a rampage over the ninja village of Konoha, leading to the sacrifice of their Fourth Hokage. Years later, after it's defeat, a two-tailed fox called Naruto Uzumaki enters the Ninja Academy disguised as a blond boy who likes to play pranks and is a little bit too touchy.
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

The Origins of the Uzumaki Clan.

A long time ago, the tailed beasts roared upon the Earth.

It is not known their true origins, but it was known that they were highly powerful beings, capable of unimaginable amounts of destruction. They were nine in total and the most powerful of them was Kyuubi, The Nine-Tailed Fox.

The Nine-Tails thought of itself as a superior being that had the all-powerful right to do as it pleased with whatever caught its feeble attention. It indulged in chaotic behavior, sometimes being evil, sometimes being benevolent and sometimes just being random for the sake of it's own amusement.

It found in humans the richest sources of entertainment. Their puny lives, emotions and situations that they could get into even without the Nine-Tails toying with them was highly amusing to it, pushing the Fox to mess with them just to increase the amount of self-satisfaction.

On some of these whims, the Fox ended up creating spawns, fruits of nights with unsuspecting lonely humans. These individuals ended up being coming together eventually, and then they formed the Uzumaki Clan, a family that holds the power of trickery and magic of the Nine-Tailed Beast.

As centuries went by, it was decided that their great-grandfather, the Kyuubi, should be sealed, as its path of chaos turned even more destructive to the humans around it. To guarantee that the Fox would never escape, it was divided in many parts and sealed inside every member of the Uzumaki Clan.

It is said that if it ever happens that the clan is reduced to less than a tenth of its members, the Nine-Tailed Beast would return and ensue chaos over all nations. Therefore, we sincerely wish that the Uzumaki Clan have a prosperous and long existence.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Meeting

**Author's Foreword:**

I have a weird relationship with Naruto. I never really cared much for it, I prefer One Piece. However, I just really like to read Naruto fanfiction for some reason. Because of this, my knowlede of the series is limited to what I actually whatched, a few spoilers from friends and what I've read on fanfiction.

So, this fanfic is writen by the point of view of a guy with limited (and yet not really) knowledge of Naruto, which led me to write an Alternate Universe where some fundamental things are changed for my own sake and get rid of the need of relying too much on the original material.

Think of it as what Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. is for the Scooby Doo franchise.

I'm writing this for people who don't have a lot of knowledge of the series while making nods and references for the people who do, without making it boring for them.

Anyway,

I've put a few rules for myself for writing this. Keep these in mind:

1) I'll not use OCs, I'll use the billion characters that Naruto has to offer for any situation that I need and I'll try to use non-canon locations as sparingly as possible. I don't like it much when it happens in other fanfictions, why should I do it with my own?

2) I'll try to stick as much as I can to the canon personalities, although I'll say upfront that I prefer lighthearted stuff, so maybe some changes will happen.

3) The use Kage Bushin is gonna be limited and nerf'd. It's too OP and storybreaking for what I wanna do with this. I've toyed with the idea of not having it at all, but it's such a remarkable characteristic of the series that it would be a waste to not have it.

4) I'm more of a "When All You Have Is A Hammer" kind of guy. What I mean by this is that I prefer powers that are seemingly simple, but with a lot of uses if you're creative enough (half of the reasons of why my favorite series is One Piece are this). So, don't expect people to have a lot of different jutsus because that is not gonna happen. It's gonna be like Pokemon games, but a bit more flexible.

Okay, we good?

Let's start this show then.

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – The Meeting**

The Old Man said that he should not wander the village, he would not want a repeat of what happened last year. However, he couldn't help himself, being restricted to an enclosed space was suffocating.

He needed to feel the air gently stroking his fur, entering his lungs while filling his nose with interesting smells!

Therefore, he did just that.

Bypassing his caretakers wasn't a great challenge, he could trick anyone with his mastery of disguises. Once he disguised himself as a potted plant for some hours, which led to him being witness to some very funny dialogues while the Old Man and his ninjas looked after him. However, this time he used a simpler idea: he disguised himself as a little mouse, escaping the tower through the ventilation ducts and cracks in the walls.

However, he still took care to not be seen by the villagers, especially because it was still broad daylight and if any of them even caught a glimpse of yellow and orange, he would be in big trouble.

So, he wandered the streets disguised as a child version of one of his heroes: The Fourth Hokage.

It seemed to be a good enough disguise, as even if some people mumbled stuff about the leaves on his head, nobody could actually figure out who he actually is. Conclusion: the disguise was a success.

God! It was so good to just walk the streets and seeing the people, the animals, the plants!

Perfect.

That is, until some screams caught his attention.

* * *

Hinata was scared.

Being shy and nervous about her future is her usual estate of being, but "scared" was no estranger to her. Those bullies sure where pushing her buttons.

Comments about her "strange white-eyes", the coldness of her clan or even her supposed "superiority" where made, each meaner than the other. She needed to get away from them, she needed to power through it.

"J-just l-let me go…" she pleaded.

"J-just l-l-l-let m-m-m-m-me go!" the older of them mocked.

"Awwww, the little princess don't wanna play anymore?" The shorter said. "Too high and might to play with plebs like us? Is that it?" He emphasized it with a push.

"N-no, that's not…!" As she tried to explain herself, she is pushed once more, with more force, sending her to the dirty floor of the street.

She cried while they kept taunting her. "Well, princess, it's time that someone put you down of your high horse! And there's no better way to do this than making yourself acquaintance with the the streets of Konoha!" the middle one grabbed her hair and started to push to her face towards the dirty.

That is until they heard a snarl.

They paused, trying to see the source of the sound.

The shorter one suddenly felt a clawed hand grab his head. He screamed as he was dragged to the nearby alley. His friends snapped their heads while they only caught his feet up in the air, disappearing on the darkened street.

The middle one still held Hinata as he cautiously called his disappeared friend. He heard a muffled scream and he was suddenly alone. He looked at the little girl's eye, following the path they observed: the roof just above them.

He caught a glimpse of his friend's frightened face as he disappeared.

"W-w-what is happening?" the only boy left screamed. He turned to Hinata, screaming at her face. "You! You've seen what happened, r-right!?" She nodded. "What as it?"

"A-a-a-a fox with nine-tails…!" She whispered with fright.

"Y-YOU'RE JOKING! YOU CAN'T B-B-B-BE SERIOUS!" He started to push her again, this time against the wall, suspending her grabbing her collar. "YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT SO I WILL LET YOU GO!"

He heard another snarl.

This one uncomfortably close to his ear.

He smelt the breath of an animal, something similar to that of a dog's. "You will let the girl go… and then you'll get to see your friends again… with all their limbs." A voice so soft that sent chills down his spine said. He turned around, letting Hinata go.

His eyes widened in fear. An enormous fox looked back, with slits eyes and shining white _pointy_ teeth.

He screamed about the return of the Kyuubi while he fled the street.

The fox observed the boy go and disappear when he did a turn on a farway street. Only then he turned to the girl dropped on the dirty street. She observed her trembling with the same fear in her eyes that the boys had. The fox approached, she flinched. The fox sniffed her, she closed her eyes, waiting for her certain death.

She listen to a poof and a soft boy's voice speaks. "You ok?"

Hinata opens her eyes, to see blond boy with a wild hair full of orange leaves. She observes his face for a while, noticing the whiskers on his cheeks. "Y-you… where the fox…?"

He scratched his cheeks, a nervous smile on his face. "Hahah, yeah, did you like it? I'm quite good at transformations!" He said with a bright and proud smile.

She blushed a little. "Y-yes, you're pretty good at the Henge technique… Who taught you?"

He appeared confused for little while. "Henge…? OH! Oh, yeah! Henge! That was totally it! My Old Man taught me, y'know?"

She smiled a little at the nervousness of the boy. Somehow, discovering that she wasn't the only one that was a nervous wreck around other people kind alleviated her own stress.

He smiled more genuinely too when he caught her gentle smile. Then his smile grew again, showing his white, pointy teeth. "Well, I should go before someone comes seeking the fox, can't let them get me!"

"W-wait!" Before she got to ask his name, he made a hand sign, transformed into a rat, and ran into the sewer, disappearing without a trace.

She observed for a while the small hole the boy turned into rat disappeared into. She didn't know for how long she kept watching the same spot, but one thought kept repeating itself.

"But… Father said that Henge is just an illusion, not a true transformation…"

She went to her house, for a moment thinking about confirming her knowledge with her Father, but ended up deciding to keep it to herself. It wouldn't do to ask another "stupid question" to anger him.

She just hoped that she would see the fox boy again.

* * *

Through the same way he came, the boy entered his room on the Hokage Tower. It was dark and quiet, but he didn't notice anything wrong until the lights blasted his small rodent eyes, which prompted him to transform himself back into a boy, although now mixed with his fox appearance from earlier. He used his two tails to protect himself from the light, while his long fox ears listened to someone approaching him.

He opened his eyes as he felt the Third Hokage's gaze over him.

"Naruto, where have you been all day?"

The boy sent a nervous smile to his adoptive grandfather while his ears flopped to the sides. "I just went to walk on the village streets, Gramps!"

"And what is that about the 'the nine-tails' appearing on the streets that the ANBU reported to me?" He said with a stern tone on his voice. The boy got more nervous and looked a bit to the Hokage's feet.

"Y'see, there was this girl with white eyes that was being picked up by some bullies, so I decided to play a prank on them so they would stop being mean to her!" He explained, shifting his mood through his story from shy, nervous, angry and finally boastfully proud of himself.

Sarutobi sighed. That matched the reports he received from the testimonies that his ninja collected and the Hyuuga Heiress' story that she reported to her caretakers, who reported to her Father.

He sent a gentle smile to the boy and put a hand over the boys head, scratching between his ears. "Well, you certainly did some good today, Naruto."

The fox-boy smiled with shines on his eyes.

"But I have to repeat: Don't go to the village, if people notice who you actually is..." he said with a seriousness that put off the boy, but he suddenly felt brass again.

"But I went to the village disguised and nobody noticed! I bet that I could even fool the academy and get to be a ninja like you and the Fourth!" he screamed with a confident smile.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed again, having heard the wishes of the boy to be let into the academy many times before. Sure, it makes sense that a boy his age would feel a need to meet other kids, but if they ever discovered that he _isn't even human_ , chaos would certainly spread through the village at best (and he didn't even want to think about the _worst_...)

Although, this time a thought hit him.

If this gamble paid off, Konoha would have a very bright future with the Last Uzumaki as a very important figure of it.

"Well, then if you can sustain your transformation even while sleeping, I will let you go in the academy." He smiled at the surprised face of the boy.

Naruto smiled back with confidence and a spark of mischief shone in his eyes.


	3. Chapter 2 - The First Day (1st Period)

**Author's Foreword:**

I should probably have said this sooner, but I'll mainly focus on the academy days of Naruto. That is because it seems to be a not a very used scenario in Naruto fanfiction and, if I want some distinction, that's what I'm going to use. It gives me many oportunities for using slice-of-life bits, which is a genre that I actually enjoy.

By what I've read on the Narutopedia, the Hokage Residence and The Hokage Office are two separated places. In fact, the Hokage Office and Mission Assignment Desk seems to be located at the Academy, which may seem weird, but when you think about it, it makes sense that that the highest military official on the hierarchy would have their office located at the sae place where they train potential recruits. It's still weird, but it does makes sense, so I'm going with that too.

Also, if you know at least a little about japanese folklore, you'll probably notice that I'm using the mythical fox or fox spirit yokai, whatever you prefer to call it. That is because I'm very much into mythology and supernatural stuff, which the series had, but not in enough amounts for my satisfaction.

Expect this to play a role on the story, whatever path it's going to.

I'm pretty much writing as I go, to be honest. My only guides being the rules I've set upon myself.

Anyway, let's continue the show.

xxx

* * *

 **Chapter 2 – The First Day (1st Period)**

"Are you sure about this, Naruto?" The Hokage asked one last time while holding his adoptive grandchild's hand. Chuunins flanking them side by side, keeping their eyes prepared for anything. ANBU hiding in the sahdows, doing the same task.

"Yes, Gramps! I already told ya! I can keep being _like this_ for two days straight now!" the blond boy with lots of leaves on his hair said.

The Hokage chuckled at the enthusiasm of the boy. "Alright, alright. A promise is a promise. Which kind of person would I be if I didn't keep my promises?"

The boy smiled to him.

He knew the answer and kept it to his heart.

* * *

Iruka had a pretty peaceful life.

Sure, he was an orphan and he didn't consider himself anywhere near to "good looking" thanks to face scar that horizontally graced his nose (although some people he doesn't know about would disagree with that with his self-image opinion). However, being a teacher was a very satisfying experience, which mostly compensated all of that.

Filling kids with knowledge, even if it was knowledge of how to become a glorified magical assassin, was a wonderful experience. See the kids slowly becoming smarter and better was a great pleasure to the young man. And today he received notice that he would welcome a new kid to fill up with knowledge!

What a wonderful day.

As he finished this thought, the door to his class opened, presenting his superior and village leader, Hiruzen Sarutobi, The Third Hokage, and a little blond boy with a bunch of orange leaves sticking out of his hair.

"Yo!" the boy did a little salute that made the teacher smile. "Are ya the teacher?"

"Ah, yes! My name is Iruka Umino, but you can call me Iruka-sensei!"

The Hokage smiled to him, then encouraged the boy to go near the teacher. Iruka then started to address the class.

"Today we have a new student with us! Please, pay attention while he presents himself."

The boy did the same little salute to the class, with a big smile full of white pointy teeth, stretching the whisker marks on his cheeks.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, leaves and to play pranks! Someday I'll be Hokage like Old Man Third! I hope we can be friends!"

The Hokage did a little cough on the "pranks" part, while Iruka sent a nervous smile to the boy. "Well, Naruto, why don't you choose a sit? There's still some free ones while we wait for the other students!"

Naruto smiled to his teacher and then set his eyes to scan the classroom. Some other students where already there:

A black haired boy that looked like he would prefer to be anywhere else but the class. Or that everybody around him exploded. Whichever is better.

A sleeping boy with a little hair bun that looked like a pineapple sided by a fat boy munching on some chips, both seemingly uncaring about the new student.

Some other people without relevant characteristics (and that probably would made good infiltration agents because of that).

A boy with face marks that made him look like Princess Mononoke looked at him like he was a dog that just spotted a cat. In fact, he appeared to carry a small dog on his head making the same expression towards him.

A boy with dark glasses and a tall shirt collar that covered half of his face slightly turned his face to regard him.

A girl with white eyes that seemed to be very fixated on Naruto and was suddenly startled when they locked eyes.

"Oh." She said.

"OH!" he screamed making the sleeping boy jump.

The boy ran under all the tables, like a fox following a rabbit to it's den under the bushes, startling everyone on his path, until he appeared right on the free spot besides the white-eyed girl. He looked directly into her face, too close to be what someone would call a respectful to her personal space. He gave her a big shining smile with pointy teeth, one that only threatened to make her feel good and warm.

"Hey, I remember you!"

"Y-you do?" She stammered.

"Yep!" He proceeded to give a very warm hug to her immediately. "I hope nobody bothered you again!"

She made a sound that was somewhere between a happy bird and a desperate exclamation.

Then she fainted.

The entire class just fell into silence until Prince Mononoke shouted "What the hell just happened!?"

* * *

Hinata couldn't believe it.

For almost two years she wondered about the boy who could transform himself into a nine-tailed fox (albeit not as big as the actual Kyuubi) and a small rat. She always wondered where did he go? She never caught sight of him again since that day.

Her caretakers ended up telling her Father what she told them what happened that day. Her Father then proceeded to ask her if it was real or just her imagination and no, it did not matter if there was other three boys who had seen it, only the eyes of the Hyuuga could not be fooled!

She confirmed, of course, but she was never sure if he believed her.

She even started to think that it was maybe one of those fabled fox youkai that could turn themselves into anything using magic and some leaves (she didn't understand why the leaves, but she didn't put much thought on that part). Sure, nobody has seen a magical fox before or since that terrible day the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible, right?

And then, when she was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, she dreamt the entire thing, the boy just appears on her class as a new student.

What are the chances?

And of course he had to hug her and make her faint in front of everyone. She didn't expect it, nobody did, not even the Hokage, it seems. Her Father sure was hearing about that later.

But she would worry about that later, as she started to wake up again.

As the lights invaded her visual senses, she started to make sense of the people around her. One of them seemed to be the Hokage, using some jutsu to diagnose the girl.

"It seems that she just fainted a bit, nothing to worry about." He said, making Iruka-sensei some of the students around her sigh in relief. "You must pardon Naruto, Umino-kun, he is very… fond of hugs." He chuckled to the blond boy, who hovered behind the elderly leader, trying to see what was happening.

"Sorry, I just got excited…" He said scratching his head.

"That's okay, Naruto." Iruka-sensei sighed and smiled to the boy. "Just remember that people like when you first ask permission to enter their personal space."

"No promises, Iruka-sensei!" he responded with a big smile full of mischief.

"Naruto…" the teacher look exasperated and resigned. "I feel like I'm going to have a handful with you…"

The Hokage chuckled. "Oh, Umino-kun, you have no idea."

* * *

As the class started, Naruto felt an excited feeling of expectative.

He always wanted to interact with other children his age!

Sure, it sucked that he had to hide his tails and ears, but hey, he already made a friend! No time to mop about his continued disguise!

Iruka-sensei seemed to be a genuinely cool guy, helping him when he had difficulty in understanding something. He had people teach him stuff before, but unless it was the Hokage personally doing it, it seemed that his past teachers had done it without any drive to actually make him learn something.

But Iruka-sensei was different! He is passionate about teaching and even someone with the attention span of a hyperactive 8-old could see it!

It was something that brought some relief to his small heart. Naruto was honestly worried about the classes, he knew he was a late-entry. He understood that he actually was meant to have entered the academy _at least_ a year before, but Gramps wouldn't let him enter the academy unless he could hold his transformation even when he was unconscious.

It was kinda hard to hold this form for more than a day. It felt like trying to hold poop for long periods of time, but didn't felt as bad or as gross as that. The Hokage would like him to say it was more like wearing a suit three numbers smaller, if only because it was a less gross metaphor, but Naruto is a young child that did not understood why such a comparison is better than his own. Either way, the point is that keeping a transformation for so long was rather uncomfortable after some hours.

But anyway, he was in the academy now!

Time to start his road to being Hokage like his Gramps!

While he daydreamed about being the leader of a ninja village, the class went by and soon it was time for lunch. He immediately did a 90º degree turn to his seat neighbor, the white-eyed girl with dark hair called Hinata.

"Hey, wanna eat with me?" he asked with excitement.

"Hm, I, uh…" she tried to grab any sort of strength to say 'yes', but she kept nervously mumbling until Prince Mononoke interrupted.

"Hey! Leave her alone! Don't you see you're bothering her!?"

The boy with a dog scowled at the blond boy with whisker markings on his cheeks. Neither of them could put a finger on it, but they seemed to feel some sort of ancient instinct of rivalry and annoyance at each other. Like some sort of animal rivalry between cousin predators or something like that.

Naruto immediately get up of his seat and puts one foot over his desk. "And who are you to tell her what she is feeling, huh!? If I'm bothering her, then I'll just ask her if she wants me to leave her alone!"

The other boy started to point at their direction with anger. "Hinata is too shy to refuse! She is just gonna agree to it because she doesn't have courage to say 'no' to some jerkass like you!"

"Shut up! Why the hell do you think I'm a jerkass!? I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You made her faint with your desperate hugs!"

"Who are you calling desperate, dog boy!?"

Naruto was ready to jump from his desk to the other boy's with all his strength when he felt a small hand grab hem of his shirt. His face went from anger to curious questioning while he looked at Hinata.

With a small soft voice that seemed to fight with her own need to just disappear under the desk, she said "I, uhm, I want t-to eat lunch with… with you, yes!"

They kept quiet for a moment.

Then Naruto gave her a beautiful shining smile, quickly picked both his orange bento box, grabbed her hand and went out of the classroom with speed, making sure to pass by the face-markings boy with an infuriatingly smug grin.

Kiba could only scowl back at the blond while he exited the room with Hinata. He didn't trust that guy, he smelled like a rival predator, like some distant annoying cousin that had a bad habit of stealing their prey.

He smelled like… like…

"Freaking fox-smelling bastard, I'm going to punch that shit eating grin out of you when we spar later…"


	4. Chapter 3 - The First Day (2nd Period)

**Author's Foreword:**

Apparently, foxes and dogs are some sort of mythological enemies on japanese folklore.

This is enough excuse for me to pull a trope that I'm relativelly into called "Sitcom Arch-Nemesis" (or, as I like to call it in my mind, " _DINKLEBERG...!"_ ).

Aaaaah, god ol' Fairly OddParents. You're pretty much shit nowadays, but I will always remember the good episodes.

Anyway, let's start today's chapter.

xxx

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – The First Day (Second Period)**

Naruto ran around the academy with Hinata's hand firmly contained in his grasp while his other hand holded a very big bento box. She tried to mumble something to make him go slower, but the blonde wasn't listening while they traveled to the open space where the other kids where eating and playing around. He was too excited to share lunch time with someone!

Someone besides his caretakers, that is.

He spotted what seemed to be a good eating place and sit under a tree, inviting the white-eyed girl by patting the ground just by his side. She did so, while looking like she was a nervous tomato.

She started to wiggle nervously by his side. "Uhm… Naruto-kun… I forgot m-my bento box inside my p-pack… back in t-the classroom."

The boy looked at her like committed a great mistake, the kind that only a fool would commit (which was true, excited 8-year olds usually don't pay much attention). He soon recuperated, sending her an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan! You can have part of my lunch! It's big enough for us both, believe it!" He started to unwrap his box while Hinata's mind flared up at the thought of 's-sharing lunch with… with a b-b-boy she just met!'

Well, okay, it wasn't the first time she'd seen him, but she knew very little about him, so it was as good as just meeting him for the first time.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the fox-like boy asked "Hey, Hinata-chan, how do you about ramen?"

"Huh?"

"Y'see, half my box is ramen because my Old Man wouldn't let me eat _only_ ramen, so I have some rice, vegetables and even some strawberries for something more sweet." He shot her a questioning look with a bit of worry. "I mean, I don't know if you like ramen, I hope this other stuff is enough for you, if that's the case."

Hinata looked at his box. It was indeed half-full with ramen on a separated container inside it, with some rice and vegetables on another and a small portion of strawberries on a third one. He even had a thermos with what she determined was orange juice.

"No, I-I don't mind eating ramen, b-but…" She looked at the pair of hashi on the boy's hand, twitching a bit in anticipation to catch some food. "…but you have only one pair of hashi…"

"Oh! Well, that's not a problem." He then picked two leaves from his hair and showed to her. "Here, let me show you something cool!"

She looked at the leaves on his hand, and with a wave of his other hand passing over then, shortly covering her vision of then, a pair of unused hashi appeared on their place. "Ta-dah!"

She stared at the boy who had a smile and some expectative on his face. She was confused. "Naruto-kun, it's n-nice that you're good with genjutsu, b-but…"

"Oh, they're not genjutsu!" He said pinching the girl's cheek with them. She 'eep'd at the contact and she shot a look of awe that only child that witnessed a magic trick for the first time could produce.

"H-how did y…?"

"It's a se-e-cre-t~~~!" He chanted jovially. "I might tell you if you turn out to be a good friend!"

Hinata stared at him, then accepted the pair of hashi with a smile.

* * *

Naruto was right, the lunch box he brought was enough for both of them, but he looked like he could go for a Round 2 anytime (Hinata made a mental note to give him her forgotten bento box later, as a 'thank you' gift). Satisfied with their lunch, they went around for a while on the academy grounds, waiting for the break time to end. The boy stops, making his companion stop to look at what he was pointing.

"Hey, what's the name of this?"

She looks at the tree he was pointing to and found the target of his curiosity. "It's a-a swing, Naruto-kun."

He ran excitedly to the swing, sitting on it with enthusiasm, starting to use his legs to kick himself. "I've see other kids playing on this, but never got to myself! It fun!" He laughed while he entered a rhythm and swung with power. Hinata smiled softly at his gleeful expression, but she could not resist her curiosity about his statement.

"Why did you n-never played on s-swing, Naruto-kun?" His rhythm starts to calm a get less powerful, making it easier for her to see an estrange expression of thoughtfulness and… something she was not able point out exactly. Stopping completely, he faces Hinata square on the eyes.

"Well, I kinda live in a locked room most of the time."

"Huh? W-wait, what d-do y…"

"But that's not important!" He declared with a smile. "I'm allowed to go to the academy and that's what matters now!" He swung once more with force and after a few swings that got higher and higher, he jumped from it, barely preventing himself from falling face first on the dirt. He sticks a victorious pose to her with a goofy grim, but it doesn't alleviate her curiosity.

"But, N-Naruto-kun…" and then the bell sounded, ending the lunch break.

"Well, where going back to the classes! Can you get me there? I didn't learn how to run around this place yet."

Hinata shelved her questions for the moment and helped him to go back the class.

* * *

 _'Was he locked in a cage or something?'_

It was one of the many thoughts on Hinata's head regarding her new seat neighbor and budding new friend.

The Hyuuga Clan drilled on her mind that she needed to be always observant. Being a ninja, this was an incredibly important skill. Being a Hyuuga, this was the very foundation of the use of their specialty, the Byakugan. In fact, it is demanded of them to notice the tiniest of details even when their special eyes were not active. She couldn't help herself but think about all she knew about the boy, who seemed to be as mysterious as he was weird.

At first, she thought that the leaves on his head where kind of… wild and random, she would say. Then he shows his leaf trick a couple times, first transforming a pair of leaves into hashi, then using one leaf to transform it on a small ball that he played a bit like he was a cat with wool ball over their shared desk. All that indicated that it wasn't a Genjustu, as those usually where just a visual, and sometimes audiovisual, trick (the Theoretical Genjutsu Class they were in right now served to remind her of that). She knew this because she could actually touch both the hashi and the ball he made. In fact, she was briefly distracted of her thoughts as she played some soccer-like game with their hands on the desk.

Oh, that was fun!

Where she was again? Oh, yeah. He is a bit weird, but a bit charming. Something akin to a magician or a trickster.

And… folklore usually depicts foxes as tricksters, right?

Okay, maybe it's a bit silly to think that the boy isn't human just because he did some transformation jutsu that didn't have anything to do with genjutsu… maybe it's just a bloodline limit?

It was then that, not really paying attention to the game, she accidentally "kicked" the ball with her fingers out of their desk and hit Kiba right on the point between his head and neck connected. He immediately turned at them, at first annoyed when searching from where it came and then angry when he caught Naruto snickering while Hinata had an apologetic expression on her face.

He returned his attention to his desk, picked his eraser and launched it over his shoulder with only his dog looking to them. It hit Naruto square on the nose. "Goddammit, dog-breath!"

"Naruto! Don't interrupt the class or you'll get detention!"

"Sorry, Iruka-sensei…" his apology sounded funny while he massaged his nose, which made Kiba snicker at him.

Ooooooooh, Naruto would remember that.

* * *

After the theoretical classes on Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, it finally came time for a Taijutsu session. The teachers taking care of the class where Iruka and some guy with white hair and a laid back smile.

"Attention, class! With the help of Mizuki-sensei, I will be supervising your forms for the basic academy taijutsu and later will have a sparring session!" Iruka-sensei then noded to his coworker, who assumed the class.

"Okay, as we have a new student, let me take this opportunity to review our basic katas. I'll go over them and you will repeat each step after me!"

As they started doing the moves, Naruto thought about how behind the class he was. Math was a problem to him, he could do the basic formulas, but anything with big numbers start to confuse him. History was a so-so for him, he wasn't very interested in how the village was formed as much he was interested in hearing about the great ninja feats of Hokages from the past. Genjutsu was a bust, while the blond could pull off tricks of prestidigitation (and do transformations to both himself and his leaves), he simply didn't have the chakra control necessary for executing the basic stuff, because of that, he the rest of the class couldn't even bother to pay attention to the theoretical side of it.

Ninjutsu… Well, they went over the theory of how the basic academy jutsu works and Naruto was glad that he could pull of a henge (although his thing wasn't really a henge, but so far, only Hinata noticed, it seems), but the Clone and Replacement techniques where hard fails. His clones either looked sick or just exploded for some weird reason, while the tentative of replacing himself with a log ended with him stuck in some broom closet somewhere near the class.

Thankfully, Iruka-sensei deducted where he could've ended up just before the class ended, although Dog-Boy and the rest of class laughed when they found him suspended by his clothes, stuck on some brooms, like some weird blond scarecrow.

"Maybe you want to go follow the yellow brick road to find a brain before you can try becoming a Hokage, fox-face!" Kiba really pushed his buttons when he called him that.

While he was sure that nobody didn't know about his secret, the fact that Kiba seemingly associated him with foxes by instinct made him a bit nervous.

Maybe he could get back at him at the taijutsu spar later.

After having his stances corrected a few times, he practiced until Iruka-sensei got everybody's attention. "Okay, class! That seems good enough! Now we're going to make pairs, then each of them will spar together in this circle." He pointed to a circle drawn on the floor near them. "To defeat your opponent, you just need to make them go out of the circle. When you're done, switch partners and repeat the process two more times!"

They selected their opponents picking numbers on a box, which then where written on the blackboard they brought to organize the entire thing. Naruto smiled, although his opponent declared his satisfaction in a louder way.

"YES! I get to punch autumn-boy in the face!"

They both locked glares and smirked at each other.

Kiba was going to enjoy this.


	5. Chapter 4 - Rivalries

**Chapter 4 – Rivalries.**

Naruto was _thrilled!_

It was the first time that he actually is going to enter in a fight with someone else.

The guys who bothered Hinata didn't count, as they didn't really put up with a fight, it was more like scaring the shit out of them so much that they were unable to fight back. His caretakers didn't count either because the blond was never able to convince any of them to actually teach him any moves. The Academy Taijutsu was the first martial art that he has ever learned up until now and he couldn't wait to see the results!

And maybe if Naruto wasn't so confident in himself, maybe, just maybe, he would have noticed that one day of training probably isn't enough to beat someone who came from a clan with their own taijutsu style drilled into their bodies.

The white-haired teacher approached them when it was their turn in the circle. "Okay, little guys, remember. Taijutsu only, Ninjutsu or Genjutsu are strickly forbidden. You have 3 minutes to beat each other. At my mark you go."

He elevated his hand.

Naruto looked the boy put his dog to the side.

Kiba then looked at the blond with a predatory grim.

The fox-like boy replied with one of his own.

"Hajime!" Mizuki cut the air with hand.

They immediatly jumped at each other. And almost immediately Kiba dodged a punch and then punched Naruto so hard in the face that he went flying out of the ring.

…

…

…

"Well, that was easy." the teacher said.

"GODDAMMIT, DOGHEAD! YOU BROKE MY NOSE!"

"Winner is Kiba!" Mizuki announced while holding the hand of the victor to the air, the boy with tribal markings felt proud of himself. The teacher turned to Naruto, who was trying to contain the fountain of blood that his face had transformed into. "Can someone take Naruto to the infirmary?"

A trembling shy hand went up.

"Did you already have your spar, Hinata?"

"No, sensei."

"Are you sure that you want to do this, then? Some other student could do this."

"I-I'm sure about it, sensei."

"Okay, then, but try to come back as soon as you can." As the girl helped the Uzumaki get up and then go together to the infirmary, he then turned to the rest of the class. "Whoever had Hinata as an opponent, please, pick someone who already fought."

A pink haired girl turned to a blond one with a ponytail.

"Prepared to get your face smudged with dirty, Pig?"

The blond snorted.

"Puh-lease, only because I already did my first fight doesn't means that you'll defeat me, Forehead. I'm just that tougher than you!"

They soon started to punch each other even before their sensei said they could start their fight.

* * *

"Why did you waste my time?"

The question confused both Naruto and Hinata. The Academy Nurse sighed.

"Look, the Diagnose Jutsu shows that your nose isn't broken, whatever made it bleed is already gone. The air must be dry or something, that probably left the blood vessels inside your nose sensible and that's why it bled when you got punched." She picked some tissues and offered to the boy. "Here, clean up and go back to class."

"Well… I guess that's ok then. Thank you." He bowed and then turned to his companion. "Let's go back, Hinata-chan!"

The girl simply nodded and led him through the corridors for a while. He cleaned up the bloody mess on the way as quietly as one blowing blood out of their nose could.

She decided to break the silence soon. "Uhm, N-Naruto-kun… D-did you heal your nose? I didn't see you do that techinique that Med Nins do..."

"Nah, I think it's a thing that my body does when I'm hurt." She waited for him to elaborate and the boy decided to indulge her. "It happened before, once I accidentally put a kunai through my cheek, it hurt a lot!" He put a hand on his left cheek and made an expression of pain. "But then I was good again just an hour later! Gramps says it's because I'm an Uzumaki."

' _So, it_ is _a bloodline limit_ ' thought the girl. ' _And a pretty convenient one_ '.

"S-so… Your clan… a-are they all able to cure the-themselves l-like you?"

She waited for his response, but once again he made that thoughtful expression he did when they were playing on the swing. The same expression that had elements of something that she couldn't quite determine what they were. But he didn't take as long to respond.

"Well, I dunno. For all I know, I'm the last Uzumaki."

He only noticed that she stopped on her tracks after a few steps.

"Uhm, Hinata-chan?"

She walked towards him, with a sad expression, and then hugged him tightly. He was surprised, but Naruto didn't take long to reciprocate.

"I-I-I-I'm s-sorry for your l-loss, you m-must miss them s-so much..."

Naruto snorted. "Don't worry about me, Hinata-chan. I'm ok." She looked at him as if she wasn't buying that. "Believe it! It's hard to miss someone that you never met, imagine an entire family, haha!"

Hinata was new to analyzing the blond's expressions, but she liked to think that she had seen so many of his smiles today that she could tell that this one lacked any shine from the other ones he usually sent to her.

Seeing her worried expression, Naruto decided to change the subject and cheer her up at the same time. "Hey, let me show you something cool!"

He then made a hand sign and transformed into a very small rabbit, the only indication that it was her blond friend being the foxy-like expression and some tuffs of orange on the ends of his ears. Hinata, momentarily forgetting about the composure of a Hyuuga, squealed at the sight of such cute small critter and start to stroke his ears.

She just loved rabbits!

* * *

When they finally returned, the class was already in the middle of the second round of fights. When Naruto and Hinata got close the other kids, the blond turned to the guy munching chips nervously and elbowed him softly on the arm.

"Hey, did Dog-Boy fight again? I hope that he got his nose broken too, that had hurt like being hit by a brick."

"Ah, yes, he did. He fought Uchiha over there and lost almost as quickly as you, though no broken nose." Naruto hmph'd in dissatisfaction. The other boy looked over him and said "By the way, the nurse must have done one hell of a good job, your nose looks perfect."

"haha, yes, she is pretty good isn't she?"

"Not good enough so you can leave without even some sort of bandage up your nose or something." Said a boy with a sleepy expression besides snacking-boy. "I bet that whatever you did, must be troublesome."

Naruto could only laugh nervously in response.

 _Sigh_. "Name's Shikamaru and this guy here is Chouji." He said pointing to the overweight boy.

"I'm Naruto! And this is…"

"I know who Hinata is, she is from a famous clan, like Sasuke Uchiha." He pointed to the black haired boy just a few people over. "Hinata Hyuuga, good grades and good taijutsu, but isn't very good at socializing with others." He looked to the blond boy with orange leaves on his hair. "Well, up until now, I guess."

Hinata got red as a tomato and got only redder when Naruto gave her a one-armed hug.

"Yeah! Hinata-chan is great! She is helping me to get around the academy!"

"Hey, Naruto!"

They looked to see Iruka-sensei waving at them. "Now that you're back, you can have another fight if you're up to it!"

"Oh, boy, do I!?" the foxy-boy jumped from his spot and came to the ring.

"Full of energy, isn't he?" asked Shikamaru to the girl with white-eyes, who only gave a nod in response. A soft smile appeared on her face as she looked the boy excitedly jump on the same place waiting for his opponent. The lazy boy sighed. "Troublesome."

After picking up another random number from the box, it has revealed that his opponent would be the Uchiha boy.

"Okay, can both fighters come closer to the center of the ring?" the boys both got closer to Iruka-sensei. "Good, now we will start when I give the signal."

Iruka put his hand in the air.

Naruto gave a shining smile to the other boy.

Sasuke only gave a serious look of superiority in return.

No way he would lose to the guy who lost to _Kiba_ of all people here.

Then Iruka cut the air.

"Hajime!"

Sasuke just waited for Naruto to advance and then punched his face.

Only that this time the blond-with-leaves managed to dodge, but Sasuke completed the motion and decided to spin kick him square on the his sides. Naruto gasps, but immediately grabs the other boy's leg to prevent him from moving. The Uchiha tries to make him let go, but the foxy-boy was stronger than he looked. The black-haired boy got creeped out when he said:

"Wow, smooth skin! Do you use a cream or something? Because this feel nice!" the blond said while slightly brushing his fingers on his leg. Sasuke immediately decided that it was better to take a fall if it meant kicking the other guy on the face.

Both of them fall on the ground after the kick with Sasuke's one free leg on the side of that head full of leaves, but only the black haired boy gets up. Naruto was KO'd instantly.

"Well, that was easy." _If a bit creepy_ , the Uchiha mentally added.

The teacher put his hand on the air, causing very excited cheers from the Uchiha Fanclub. "Sasuke is the winner of the round!" Iruka then looked to Naruto. "I'll take Naruto to the sides while Mizuki oversees the next match, ok?"

He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and was glad when the Hyuuga girl decided to grab his legs to facilitate the transport. They gently dropped Naruto under a tree, but Hinata stayed with him instead of returning to the others.

Looking at this, Iruka sighed. "Hinata, you can't ignore the rest of the class, you haven't fought anyone yet."

"B-but s-s-someone needs to keep an e-eye on Naruto-kun…"

"Well, I can't disagree with that, but he may be down for the rest of the class and you can't-"

"DAMMIT, AGAIN!?"

They were startled by the sudden outburst of the blond-with-leaves, who massaged the side of his temples that got kicked. "I swear that kick felt like an iron bar!"

"Well, looks like you're fine, then." Iruka-sensei turned to the girl. "Now, I believe you have a fight waiting for you." Hinata looked to sides nervously. "Come one, Hinata! You need to fight at least once, ok?"

Hinata still looked nervous, but felt a hand grab her shoulder.

"C'mon, Hinata-chan! I want to see you fighting! You must be better than me, right?" Naruto gave her a shining smile, full of confidence in the girl. She couldn't say 'no' to something like that.

"Ok, Iruka-sensei, I'll fight on-once."

Iruka smiled and accompanied both students to the rest of the class. When the current fight ended, he announced.

"Ok, now it's Hinata's turn! Can Sakura come around?" The pink haired girl stepped into the ring, she sported a few scraps from her other two fights, but seemed otherwise fine. "Good, now come closer to the center of circle so we can start."

They get in front of each other, Iruka puts his hand in the air.

Sakura smiles confidently.

Hinata seems to get smaller and smaller under the other girl's gaze.

"Hajime!"

Hinata immediately starts to dodge every attack from Sakura, not really sure if she even wants to fight. That is until she remembered about the boy smiling confidently to her, watching from the crowd.

She immediately turns the tides and attacks the pink haired girl with her clan's Taijutsu, without using chakra-enhanced strikes. Sakura has a hard time blocking the other girl and ends up launched out of the ring with a palm strike.

"OOMPH!" she gets up from the floor and starts to massage her stomach. "A bit violent today, aren't we!?"

"S-sorry, I just d-didn't wa-want to lose in fr-fr-front of…" Hinata immediately shut up when she noticed what she was saying. She wouldn't give material for her words to be misinterpreted by her new friend or anyone else.

Sadly, Sakura misinterpreted it anyway.

" _WAIT, IS SHE SHOWING OFF TO SASUKE!?"_ the pink haired girl internal voice shouted. _"SHANNARO! I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN, SHE IS LIKE A PRINCESS! I WOULDN'T HAVE ANY CHANCE IF SHE ENTERED THE COMPETITION!"_

Externally, Sakura only gave her best impression of a gentle smile to the other girl, who noticed that something was wrong right away. "Well, I guess that can't be helped! Next time I'll put up a better fight!"

She then turned and prayed to all gods she had knowledge of that Sasuke didn't get impressed with the performance of the Hyuuga girl.

Which was a waste of time, the Uchiha boy simply didn't care anyway.

* * *

Naruto's third fight ended up not happening because his next opponent was Shikamaru, who forfeited the fight out of laziness. That really annoyed the fox-boy.

"Wha- that's not fair! Everybody else is too tired to fight now!" he grumbled and grumbled until the class was dismissed.

As the students went out of the Academy to wait for their parents, the blond-with-leaves went to the swing as he waited for one of his caretakers to pick him up to go back to his secret room on the Hokage Tower. The Hokage himself had explained to him that he wouldn't be able to do that himself because the boy's classes finished while the Old Man's working hours would still be going on for a while.

As he propelled himself to get momentum, wondering who would pick him this time, Hinata approached the boy.

"Na-Naruto-kun, please, take this." She offered a bento box covered with lavender wrapping with a pattern of rabbits. "It's my lunch th-that I forgot, b-but I didn't want it to go to wa-waste, so I'm g-g-giving it to you as a th-thanks."

He stops to swing himself and takes the box with a smile. "Thanks, Hinata-chan! Let me eat this now so you can take it home!" but she put her hand over his to stop him from opening it at that moment.

"W-wait, you don't need to do that, just bring it tomorrow a-a-a-a-a-and…" she was having a hard time to say what she was going to say.

"And? What's it, Hinata-chan? Say it loud!" And there's the push she needed.

"Andwecanshareyourlunchagaintomorrow!" she said that so fast that Naruto almost didn't get it.

"OH! That's actually a pretty good idea, Hinata-chan!" He then put the bento box inside his own backpack. "I promise that I'll clean it properly!"

Hinata nodded with shy happiness.

* * *

 **Author's Footnotes:**

What, you expected Naruto to win?

How many of you even actually expected that Naruto would actually win this thing just because I gave him a new power?

This isn't a overpowered Naruto story, my friends!

I'm a fan of underpowered characters fighting to reach the top, shounen jump is all about hardwork (and friendship, but that's not part of the point I'm making) and that's how I'll roll. Just because my Naruto isn't even human, does not automatically translate to him being powerul, he still sucks at most ninja things here, but that's more because of inexperience and actually being bad at some subjects rather than the tired old fanfiction cliché of his education being purposeully sabotaged by the teachers.

Also, I wanted to plant the seeds of what is going to be Naruto's fighting style in the future: Annoying the fuck out of his enemies until they drop the ball.

...

Besides, I'm not sure how can I write an exciting fight with words, I usually do that through drawings and writen descriptions of fighting usually bores me.

 **OH, and fun note:** The little anecdote of Naruto putting a kunai through his cheek is actually based on something that actually happened to me when I was a child and a rusty nail went through my left cheek in a very bloody hilarious accident. Gladly, that happened when I was a wee-baby Moa, so I don't even actually remember it.

But my mom does and her description of the event is pretty terrifying.


End file.
